Sarah challenged societal beauty standards and her own insecurities after a 5-year long journey with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, finding the beauty in her resilience and scars. Read on (and check out her gorgeous boudoir photos) about how she has transformed her cancer journey into a self-love revolution.
When she reached out she told me that an empowering boudoir experience like this has always been on her bucket list and when she saw we were doing a giveaway, she took it as a sign to enter to win. Why not?
She told me in our first conversation, “My time is running out. I would love to leave this for my husband as a ‘different’ kind of memory of me.” Little did she know at that time what this experience would mean to her.
“If you would have asked me 6 months ago, would I have reached out to do (a boudoir photo session)- the answer would have been no.
I’ve never been comfortable in my skin. Ever. Even in high school. Coming from a conservative family, this (boudoir photography) was something that you would never do. You wouldn’t take photos like this. You wouldn’t spend money on yourself like this. That’s not how I was raised.
(But) through my self-love and cancer journey, I have decided to focus on my happiness. What makes Sarah happy. After all, I am the only one that can make myself happy.
When the cancer came, I had to have a double mastectomy. There are scars. I’ve had 3 c-sections. And I am 40 years old. And that’s not pretty to most people. It’s not what’s celebrated as beautiful. When you look at magazines, you don’t see bodies like mine on the cover.
This is not what I think of as my perfect body, my Pinterest body. But I look at these photos and think, ‘that’s MY body.’ Oh my gosh, I’m tearing up again.
What we’ve been through together and we are still marching forward. Still wanting to go out and capture the world and be better and put myself out there more.
(My boudoir photos) are so much better in person and they were already breathtaking seeing the digitals. They are everything I could have wanted and more. They make me feel so beautiful. It changed how I look and feel about my body.
It made me feel more of a woman. A beautiful woman. A full woman.
Seeing my body and my scars and the beauty in all of it really meant more than anything. I never looked at myself as beautiful before. I mean, I like my eyes, I like my smile, I’m pretty… but I’ve never looked at myself as a whole package and went WOW.
(When looking at these photos) I don’t focus on my bad knee or any other insecurities. I see them as a part of me, a part of this whole being.
I have 3 girls, 2 are teenagers. I’ve showed them some of these photos. I want them to see me as a woman, not just a mom. And know as an older woman, there’s still something to look forward to.
You’re still beautiful. You are still worthy. You may not have the ‘perfect body’ but shit, you deserve to feel your best!”
